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June 4, 2009

G54: Red Sox 6, Tigers 3

First series sweep in Detroit since September 17-18-19, 1996! In the first game of that series, the TCM struck out 20 Tigers.

The Red Sox took advantage of Willis's inability to throw strikes. Though a lot of his pitches were not far out of the zone, he did not get many calls. He walked one in the second, but quickly got a double play. He faced the minimum six batters through two innings.

In the third, Willis plunked Ellsbury, then walked Lugo. After Kottaras struck out, Willis walked Pedroia, Drew and Youkilis -- on a total of 14 pitches. That was the end of his day (2.1-0-5-5-3, 53). Zach Miner came on and allowed Bay's two-run double (ending the Tigers' no-hit bid!), Lowell's RBI groundout and Baldelli's run-scoring single.

Wakefield allowed three straight hits to begin the Detroit second, but other than that, pitched well (6.2-8-3-0-3, 81). Okajima extended his team-best scoreless innings streak to 16.1 and while Papelbon gave up a walk and a single in the ninth, he got his 14th save.

The Tigers are wondering which version of Willis will show up -- the somewhat effective lefty who compiled a 3.57 through three starts after he was activated from the 15-day disabled list after being treated for an anxiety disorder, or the guy who threw batting practice to the Orioles on Friday. In a disastrous outing at Camden Yards, Willis surrendered seven runs on 10 hits over five innings and his ERA jumped almost two runs a game.

No Tiz? Tito: "Day game after a night game, and with the angle he [Willis is a drop-down lefty] throws from, this is something to point to. We talked about it last night."

Tito, on Gerald Laird's bunt for a hit: "I'm not big on unwritten rules and 'the book.' The book has gotten re-written by people who don't know how to write. Just play the game. It's 4-0 and they're trying to win the game."

NESN has gone black. It briefly came back for a second and went away, and it's the only channel doing it, which makes me think it's their fault, not mine. It has three minutes to come back. I'm warning them.

classic John Rish--says the Yanks have two on one out. But they made the first two outs on a DP. So unless he got the update in MID-play, he was wrong on that one. Now inning over, Yanks just get the one on Damon's dong. Could've been a huge inning.

I find myself kind of hoping Lugo makes dramatic, game-losing errors so that we can just get rid of him somehow. I try not to wish ill on players -- especially ours -- but it just seems like time to (as a SoSH poster said) "cut bait".

This is pretty strange. Willis is a guy I've always liked a lot; I figure he'd be a good Satchel Paige in the movie version; with the high leg kick. You'd just have to get everyone to wear reversed jerseys and then reverse the film in post-production to fix the lefty/righty thing.

dave and joe talking about the possible 3B gold glove winner. seemingly going on only what they see or the player's rep. no talk of actually using stats or metrics to see which one is truly best. it's all very sad. like judging a batter's worth by how nice his swing looks.

dave and joe talking about the possible 3B gold glove winner. seemingly going on only what they see or the player's rep. no talk of actually using stats or metrics to see which one is truly best. it's all very sad. like judging a batter's worth by how nice his swing looks.

Not to defend them, but defensive metrics are still woefully inadequate when compared to batting metrics.

Texas dude pops up on first pitch to strand two after a walk. I check, and sure enough, it was a four pitch walk. So Aceves had come in, given up a hit and a 4-pitch walk, and the next idiot swings at the first pitch. Dungeon!